se agere solivagus periculosus est—hunc cape —

The Dealmaster: Some storage and a camera to fill it with

We've also got a deal for about $140 off of a 15" retina MacBook Pro!

It's Friday, Friday, and because we gotta have deals on Friday, the Dealmaster has delivered! Our LogicBuy partners have assembled a great list of fresh deals for this weekend (which we know everybody is looking forward to). The featured deal this week is a USB 3.0 Western Digital Passport drive, but we've got plenty of other neat things below, including a pair of laptops. Toshiba Satellite in the front seat, Retina MacBook Pro in the back seat—which one should you take?

Either way, the deals below will equip you with items specifically designed to help out your partying, partying. YEAH!

Lee Hutchinson
Lee is the Senior Technology Editor at Ars and oversees gadget, automotive, IT, and culture content. He also knows stuff about enterprise storage, security, and manned space flight. Lee is based in Houston, TX. Emaillee.hutchinson@arstechnica.com//Twitter@Lee_Ars

14 Reader Comments

I own the RT-N66U. Even though this is a high-end router, like so many modern router it brings with it random Wi-Fi dropouts and the occasional random lockup that necessitates a reboot. The QoS is extremely basic, and does not allow you to assign a low priority to the guest networks. I hoped for more given the price tag.

I miss the WRT54g days when routers were stable, even with custom firmware. For the past six years my WRT54g has been repurposed as a wireless switch. The four years prior to that it was a Wireless AP for 10+ clients. It has never required a reboot or had a Wi-Fi dropout unless user error was involved.

While I like seeing good deals posted here at Ars, it would be great if there were a few $$$-friendly deals for those enthusiasts who are on limited budgets, like me. What I mean by that is stuff that comes in under $100, and not "only just".

I took the 2GB WD My Passport on my 2 month camping trip exploring national parks this summer and documenting everything along with way in photos and time-lapse movies. It was the second backup copy which we then mailed home to be the remote backup - and did the job admirably. We did our best to keep the heat in the parked car as low as is possible in August in the desert, but even so, it survived two hard months on the road. It seemed quick and was reliable for me. Would buy again, A+++

I own the NT-66U. Even though this is a high-end router, like so many modern router it brings with it random Wi-Fi dropouts and the occasional random lockup that necessitates a reboot. The QoS is extremely basic, and does not allow you to assign a low priority to the guest networks. I hoped for more given the price tag.

I own the NT-66U. Even though this is a high-end router, like so many modern router it brings with it random Wi-Fi dropouts and the occasional random lockup that necessitates a reboot. The QoS is extremely basic, and does not allow you to assign a low priority to the guest networks. I hoped for more given the price tag.

ahhh the good old WRT54g . awesome router... lot better then the 2wire crap i have to use for tv and internet now.. buddy lives across the street.. bridged the two WRT54 together and gave him internet till his was hooked up. buddy want to plug his in and set the name to broadcast as FBI, but with no internet access... wonder how many poeple would look out their windows looking for a black van

I own the RT-N66U. Even though this is a high-end router, like so many modern router it brings with it random Wi-Fi dropouts and the occasional random lockup that necessitates a reboot. The QoS is extremely basic, and does not allow you to assign a low priority to the guest networks. I hoped for more given the price tag.

I miss the WRT54g days when routers were stable, even with custom firmware. For the past six years my WRT54g has been repurposed as a wireless switch. The four years prior to that it was a Wireless AP for 10+ clients. It has never required a reboot or had a Wi-Fi dropout unless user error was involved.

Edit: Corrected the Asus model #.

Thanks for this. I've been considering picking it up to replace my WRT54gl and finally get n speeds and mimo for when people visit and more devices are on the network. Guess I should look around more or just get something cheaper?

Is there a WRT54gl equivalent these days (affordable price, quality, tomato/dd-wrt) that offers mimo and n?

I own the RT-N66U. Even though this is a high-end router, like so many modern router it brings with it random Wi-Fi dropouts and the occasional random lockup that necessitates a reboot. The QoS is extremely basic, and does not allow you to assign a low priority to the guest networks. I hoped for more given the price tag.

I miss the WRT54g days when routers were stable, even with custom firmware. For the past six years my WRT54g has been repurposed as a wireless switch. The four years prior to that it was a Wireless AP for 10+ clients. It has never required a reboot or had a Wi-Fi dropout unless user error was involved.

Edit: Corrected the Asus model #.

Thanks for this. I've been considering picking it up to replace my WRT54gl and finally get n speeds and mimo for when people visit and more devices are on the network. Guess I should look around more or just get something cheaper?

Is there a WRT54gl equivalent these days (affordable price, quality, tomato/dd-wrt) that offers mimo and n?

I've gotta "third" this.

The linksys n router I bought was prone to drop outs and needed resets at least once a week. Could save a config file for settings, but stupid thing wouldn't recognize the config file when trying to reload it.

Meanwhile, next door neighbor chucked out a couple of WRT54G's in their front yard for bulk trash pickup. They sat in the rain all night before I found them in the morning. I tossed them into my place, and forgot about them. My brother finally got dsl at his place, so I handed them off to him. He scrounged up a generic ac adapter, tested both ... they worked. He plugged one in and used it as his wifi router for a long time. Never had an issue. He eventually moved to an n router for extra security, though. But, those g's were bullet-proof.

Is there a WRT54gl equivalent these days (affordable price, quality, tomato/dd-wrt) that offers mimo and n?

DD-WRT has a "What's the best router for...?" thread. When you get a recommendation make sure to check both the wiki page and forum posts. One mans stable router could be something that requires a weekly reboot.

pcgamer1206 wrote:

Jedakiah wrote:

I miss the WRT54g days when routers were stable, even with custom firmware.

Really? My WRT54g has been extremely unreliable. Maybe I just got a bad one

I believe there have been over ten revisions of the WRT54G since 2002. The first few were notoriously reliable. You probably have a later model, although you could just have a bad one.

I think the firmware is the key to the varying experiences. I have a WRT54GL with Tomato and have no problems with it. The Asus is actually a highly recommended router as long as you replace the firmware. I wouldn't expect anything beyond a mediocre experience with stock firmware on a consumer router, whether it's an expensive Asus or a $50 WRT54.